Notice

This article is intended for home users. If you are not comfortable with this information, you might want to ask someone for help or contact support. For information about how to contact support, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

If you are a Small Business customer, find additional troubleshooting and learning resources at the Support for Small Business site.

Internet Explorer 6 implements advanced cookie filtering
based on the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) specification. The P3P
specification, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), enables you to
express your privacy preferences while helping Web sites in clearly
describing, in a computer-readable format, how they will use your data. For
information about P3P, please see the following Web site:

Microsoft
provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support.
This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not
guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact
information.

Internet Explorer 6 will notify you of Web
sites that do not satisfy your privacy settings. This article describes how to
manage your privacy (or cookie) settings in Internet Explorer 6. For
information about the default privacy settings in Internet Explorer 6, please
see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

You can configure your privacy settings in Internet
Explorer 6 by clicking Internet Options on the Tools menu, and then clicking the Privacy tab.

NOTE: An administrator can customize your privacy settings and remove
the Privacy tab from the interface in the Internet
Options dialog box. If the Privacy tab is not
available, contact your administrator, or see the
"Information for Advanced Users and IT
Professionals" section.

These settings
replace the cookies settings on the Security tab in Internet Explorer 4 and 5 (and the Advanced tab in Internet Explorer 3). The Privacy settings slider has six settings: Block All Cookies, High, Medium High, Medium (default level), Low, and Accept All Cookies.

The following Privacy settings are available with the slider:

Block All Cookies: Cookies from all Web sites will be blocked, and existing cookies
on your computer cannot be read by the Web sites that created them. Per-site
privacy actions do not override these settings.

High: Blocks cookies that do not have a compact privacy policy or that
have a compact privacy policy which specifies that personally identifiable
information is used without your explicit consent. Cookies that were already on
your computer before you installed Internet Explorer 6 are leashed (restricted
so that they can only be read in the first-party context). Per-site privacy
actions override these settings.

Medium High: Blocks third-party cookies that do not have a compact privacy
policy or that use personally identifiable information without your explicit
consent. Blocks first-party cookies that have a compact privacy policy which
specifies that personally identifiable information is used without your
implicit consent. First-party cookies that do not have a compact privacy policy
and cookies that were already on your computer before you installed Internet
Explorer 6 are leashed (restricted so that they can only be read in the
first-party context). Per-site privacy actions override these
settings.

Medium (default level): Blocks third-party cookies that do not have a
compact privacy policy or that have a compact privacy policy which specifies
that personally identifiable information is used without your implicit consent.
First-party cookies that have a compact privacy policy which specifies that
personally identifiable information is used without your implicit consent are
downgraded (deleted when you close Internet Explorer). First-party cookies that
do not have a compact privacy policy are leashed (restricted so that they can
only be read in the first-party context). Cookies that were already on your
computer before you installed Internet Explorer 6 are also leashed. Per-site
privacy actions override these settings.

Low: First-party cookies that do not have a compact privacy policy
are leashed (restricted so that they can only be read in the first-party
context). Cookies that were already on your computer before you installed
Internet Explorer 6 are also leashed. Third-party cookies that do not have a
compact privacy policy or that have a compact privacy policy which specifies
that personally identifiable information is used without your implicit consent
are downgraded (deleted when you close Internet Explorer). Per-site privacy
actions override these settings.

Accept All Cookies: All cookies will be saved on your computer, and existing cookies
on your computer can be read by the Web sites that created them. Per-site
privacy actions do not override these settings.

NOTE: Changing your privacy preferences does not affect the cookie
acceptance policy for cookies that have already been set unless you move the
slider to Accept All Cookies or Block All Cookies.

Internet Explorer displays a Privacy dialog box the first time that a cookie is restricted based on your
privacy preferences. This dialog box appears only one time, unless you clear
the Don't show this message again check box. The Privacy dialog box explains that a new status icon (the Privacy Report icon) is added to the status bar when you visit a Web site that
does not meet your privacy preferences. You can double-click this icon to view
a privacy report that explains how the Web site either has privacy practices
that conflict with your preferences or has no published privacy policy. You can
also view a privacy report for any site by clicking Privacy Report on the View menu.

NOTE: The Privacy slider works only in the Internet zone. All cookies
are automatically accepted from Web sites in both the Local Intranet and
Trusted zones, and all cookies are automatically blocked from Web sites in the
Restricted zone.

For additional information, click
the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Per-Site Privacy Actions

You also have the option to define cookie management practices on
a per-site basis. This overrides your default privacy preferences set with the
slider for any sites that you add to the Per Site Privacy Actions dialog box, unless you move the slider to Accept All Cookies or Block All Cookies (in which case per-site privacy actions are ignored).

To override cookie handling for individual Web sites, click Edit on the Privacy tab to open the Per Site Privacy Actions dialog box. You can enter individual domains in the Per Site Privacy Actions dialog box by using a policy of either Block or Allow. Existing cookies from sites that you decide to block will be
deleted. NOTE: If you move the slider on the Privacy tab to Accept All Cookies or Block All Cookies, the Edit button becomes unavailable because per-site privacy actions are
ignored in these cases.

Advanced Privacy Settings

You can override automatic cookie handling for all Web sites in
the Internet zone by clicking Advanced on the Privacy tab. You can use the Advanced Privacy Settings dialog box to configure first-party and third-party cookies to Accept, Block, or Prompt, with a check box to always allow session cookies.

NOTE: Existing cookies on your computer can still be read by the Web
sites that created them even if you specify to block cookies in the Advanced Privacy Settings dialog box.

For additional information, click the article number
below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Any privacy settings not overridden by the imported custom
privacy settings remain unchanged when you import. For example, if the imported
custom settings do not define privacy settings for the Internet zone, the
existing privacy settings for this zone are retained. Per-site rules may be
removed when you import custom privacy settings, and if you import custom
privacy settings, you cannot change the default privacy preferences for the
Internet security zone without disabling the custom settings for that zone
(clicking Advanced or Default on the Privacy tab removes imported privacy settings for the Internet zone).
For additional information
about removing customized privacy settings that were
imported, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

If you are an administrator, you can customize privacy settings
for all users and prevent users (including administrators) from viewing or
changing their privacy settings. To do this, use the Group Policy snap-in in
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) for Windows 2000-based or Windows XP-based
computers or use the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) for any
supported Windows platform. Be aware that the computer on which you run the Group
Policy snap-in or IEAK must be running Internet Explorer 6 to configure privacy
settings.

Customize Privacy (and Security) Settings

At Stage 4 - Customizing the Browser of
the Internet Explorer Customization Wizard (IEAK), click Import the
current security zones and privacy settings in the Security
and Privacy Settings dialog box.

If you are using the Group Policy snap-in, double-click the
Security Zones and Content Ratings policy under User Configuration\Windows Settings\Internet Explorer Maintenance\Security, and then click Import the current security zones and
privacy settings.

Click Modify Settings to modify the
current privacy settings.

Click OK.

Your current security and privacy settings are written to the
selected Group Policy object or your IEAK installation package. If you use the
IEAK, you must install your installation package on each computer on which you
want to have these customized privacy settings.

Disable User Access to All Privacy Settings

To remove the Privacy tab from the interface in
the Internet Options dialog box and to prevent users from viewing or changing privacy
settings, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use the Group Policy Snap-In
(Windows 2000 and Windows XP)

To disable the Privacy tab by using the
Group Policy snap-in in Windows 2000 or Windows XP:

If this policy is not available on a Windows 2000-based
computer that is running Internet Explorer 6, obtain IEAK 6 Service Pack 1
(SP1).
For additional information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Method 2: IEAK Profile Manager
(All Platforms)

To disable the Privacy tab for all Windows 98 and
Windows Millennium Edition (Me) users or Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or
Windows XP administrators by using the IEAK Profile Manager, follow these
steps.

NOTE: To apply this policy to users who have a limited user account (non-administrators) on a
Windows NT 4.0-based, a Windows 2000-based, or a Windows XP-based computer, you
must use the Windows NT Policy Editor (Windows NT 4.0) or the Group Policy
snap-in (Windows 2000 and Windows XP).

Create an Internet Explorer installation package by using
the Internet Explorer Customization Wizard, and then start the IEAK Profile
Manager.

On the File menu, click
New or open an existing .ins file that you want to
modify.

On the Manage menu, click to select the
All Policies check box (if this check box is not already
selected).

On the File menu, click
Save. Or, click Save As, and then
type the path of your .ins file, the URL where your .cab files are stored, and
the names of your .cab files if they differ from the defaults that are
provided.

The policy is applied to users who install your Internet
Explorer installation package. When this policy is applied, a PrivacyTab DWORD value is created and its value data set to 1 in the following registry key: